Robert William Hamilton

Sir Robert William Hamilton (26 August 1867 – 5 July 1944) was a Scottish Liberal Party politician and Chief Justice of the East Africa Protectorate. Background Hamilton was the second son of Sir Robert G. C. Hamilton who was Governor of Tasmania. He was educated at St Paul's School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was called to the Bar at Inner Temple. He was knighted in 1918. In 1925 he married Gertrude Williamson of Kirkwall, Orkney. Professional career Hamilton was appointed an Assistant Judge of the High Court of East Africa in 1902. Three years later, he was in 1905 appointed Principal Judge and Chief Justice of the East Africa Protectorate. He was appointed as Chairman of the Civil Service Commission in 1918. He retired from the civil service in 1920. Political career Hamilton was selected as Liberal candidate for the island constituency of Orkney and Shetland at the 1922 general election. The seat was a safe Liberal seat, where at the previous election Sir Malcolm Smith had been returned unopposed. Smith declared himself a supporter of Lloyd George's Coalition Government and sought re-election in 1922 as a National Liberal Party candidate. The two Liberal factions went head to head and Hamilton won the seat;